Star Druid

by Skyler Grant

  Lifeforce couldn't make Banok faster, but by other means it could make him faster than the thug. A focus of will slowed the ruffian just enough for Banok to draw his own pistol.

  The thug was trying to wound him, not kill him. Perhaps Klink didn't want him dead? Maybe that wasn't what this was all about. It didn't matter, Banok's threats had been voiced and he had to prove he would carry them out.

  Banok put a round between the eyes of the man aiming a gun at him, sending him stumbling backward in a spray of blood as Banok rushed forward, taking advantage of the slowed reaction times of the other thug to get behind him and prod him in the back with the barrel of his gun.

  "I keep my threats. Try anything, I kill you too. Your boss wants to see me, take me inside," Banok said.

  3

  With the thug leading the way Banok followed him to the top of the lighthouse. What sort of crime lord decided this many stairs was acceptable? The entire point of crime was to not have to make this much effort.

  The trip did at least give Banok time to get a sense of the guards in the tower. By the time they reached the top he was aware of the position of all Klink's people.

  The top floor looked more like a luxury apartment than a den of inequity. A massive round room with furnishings, a bed, hot tub, and enormous windows showing the ocean.

  Klink was behind a desk, a well-built and bald man in a dark gray suit. He looked more like muscle than any sort of leader. This wasn't the first job they'd worked with him on, and Banok knew better.

  Cleo was on the other side of the desk, sprawled in an oversized chair and wearing a grin that seemed just a little too wide.

  By reading her lifeforce Banok could tell she hadn't been hurt, and wasn't even uncomfortable. That and her grin changed the dynamics quite a bit. Banok believed he was playing rescuer, but a smile like that made him think that somehow things were working out exactly like Cleo expected.

  "Banok! About time. I expected you half an hour ago. Kill anyone yet?" Cleo asked.

  "I told you, I needed a nap. One dead—one of his guards. Tried to take my weapons," Banok said with a shrug.

  Klink frowned and glanced to the guard accompanying Banok. "You shouldn't have done that. Things didn't have to get ugly. Me and Miss Cleo here were being all civilized about things."

  "And Nyx?" Cleo asked.

  "Out there somewhere. I let her into the explosives locker. We don't leave this place with all our pieces intact, she'll wipe this place out and everyone in it," Banok said.

  Klink cursed and reached for his comm.

  Cleo leaned over the desk to place a hand on his arm. "Really, Klink. Do you think she won't set them off, if your people go looking for the bombs?"

  "You could be lying," Klink said.

  "One of us here is a liar, but it isn't me," Cleo said, withdrawing her hand and offering a sunny smile now.

  "Care to fill me in?" Banok asked, keeping a watchful eye on the life energy of the guards.

  "Klink here accused me of bringing him a counterfeit. I didn't, but that isn't the odd thing. If he were only trying to rip us off, I wouldn't have come," Cleo said.

  "That statue isn't real. Bring in any appraiser you like," Klink said.

  Cleo said, "I was supposed to steal a counterfeit, you see? Of course, I spotted it at once. The stone is entirely the wrong composition."

  "Is that what took you so long inside?" Banok asked.

  "Once I saw the statue was a counterfeit, I saw the crate was a counterfeit too. Better built than the ones the museum uses. Might be that some thieves before us had just swapped it out, but the crate was a better forgery than the statue. Odd, that, don't you think?" Cleo asked, sitting back in her chair and eyeing Klink.

  "I don't know how this went from me accusing you, to you accusing me," Klink said.

  "This all leading up to me killing him?" Banok asked.

  "Might be. When I saw the fake, I thought another team might have just beat us to the score, but there could also be something else going on. I found another crate, the real crate with the real statue inside of it. I wasn't sure Klink had anything to do with it, you see," Cleo said.

  "And then you brought that here?" Banok said.

  "And this sad little excuse for a crime lord doesn't even have a proper appraiser on hand to tell him I brought the genuine statue. Instead, he goes with the counterfeit line he had prepared, because that's what we were expected to come back with," Cleo said.

  "We were set up," Banok said flatly.

  Klink glanced back and forth between them and let out a low growl. "Not set up. Tested. Got a client offering a small fortune for a job, but they're very specific about the crew. I told them you weren't amateurs, but they wanted proof. You shouldn't have killed my man."

  "You shouldn't have thrown us at a job with bad intelligence. You shouldn't have tried to kidnap me to get my people to show," Cleo said, leaning forward. "What kind of job and what kind of small fortune?"

  "Half a million on delivery," Klink said, pulling a binder from his desk and sliding it over. "An old tomb."

  Cleo opened the binder and flipped through, studying it for several long moments in silence. "This is in the Fade, Klink."

  The Fade. It was a blank spot on star charts, a zone for every spacer with a bit of sense to avoid.

  Klink settled back."Half a million. They know the risks, and they're paying you to take them. They want the best for a reason."

  Cleo scanned the pages. "But we aren't the first team you referred. Are we, Klink?"

  Klink forced a smile. "Don't know what you mean."

  "You already offered the job to Aubrey as well. Did she take it?"

  Aubrey Kincaid, she and her crew were completely different sort of thieves. Where Cleo kind of liked things to go wrong for the excitement it would bring, Aubrey was pure professional. Her jobs tended to go like clockwork.

  "You think she was the one that beat us into the warehouse?" Banok asked.

  "That alarm hadn't been tripped recently, and we couldn't figure out how to bypass it. Who else do you know that could pull that off?" Cleo asked.

  Klink admitted, "Original job was hers. Get in, plant the forgery, get out quiet and prove herself. You were always the backup plan." He allowed after a moment, "No offense. When she saw what the real job was about, she turned it down."

  Banok wasn't surprised. The word was that Aubrey liked to plan every detail, and the Fade was filled with unknowns.

  "We shouldn't take this," Banok said.

  "Has your greed finally found its limits?" Cleo asked.

  "The Fade isn't your normal kind of bad. The Void Queen might be millennia in her grave, but her magic has yet to diminish and that place is still the home of nightmares," Banok said.

  It was true. Most vessels that ventured into the Fade never returned. The few that did had horror stories to tell.

  Cleo was still flipping through the binder. "No notes on who is offering the contract."

  "Not something you need to know. No cutting out the middleman," Klink said.

  "I'd appreciate an answer," Cleo said absently to Banok.

  A tiny burning of life energy. Enough to slow Klink's reactions as Banok twirled his staff and with an overhead swing brought it crashing down on the man's fingers with enough force to break bone.

  Klink howled in pain.

  Banok caught the motion of the guard reaching for his weapon. Out of position to do anything about it himself, he slowed the man's reaction.

  It was enough for Cleo to grab the pistol from his waist, shooting the man twice in the chest and sending him sprawling to the floor.

  That had more guards on the way from the levels below.

  Cleo was at least aware of the pot she'd stirred, the pistol shifting to aim at Klink's head.

  "Broken fingers are bad. This can end worse. Your client?" Cleo said.

  "Baxter Williams," Klink said.

  That was a familiar name. An industrialist, and one of the wealthies
t men alive. His company manufactured more than a good quarter of the ships that took to space.

  Cleo squeezed the trigger and Klink was thrown backwards, missing most of his face.

  "And here I thought you were going to make us play nice," Banok said.

  "With half a million at stake? We brought him what he wanted, he'd have seen us dead," Cleo said, bouncing to her feet. "Besides, I don't like being second choice. We're leaving out the window. Trust me."

  With guards rushing upwards, the stairs weren't an option. Besides, he did trust Cleo. Being a part of her crew wasn't his second choice. Running towards the window he boosted his strength just before flinging himself at it. Glass shattered around him and Banok was in the air, jagged rocks and turbulent seas filling the scene below.

  A few long, agonizing seconds of falling and he crashed hard onto the roof of a shuttle, the breath knocked from his lungs. Seconds later Cleo landed nimbly beside him in a crouch, her hand already moving to her comm.

  "We're clear, Nyx. Have fun," Cleo said.

  The overextending of his lifeforce was finally getting to him. The last thing Banok saw before the druid sleep claimed him was the explosions tearing not just the tower, but the entire cliff apart.

  4

  Banok woke up in his own bed on the Catspaw. Lifeforce swirled comfortably around him. This time it seemed his rest had been successful—and there wasn't a crazy fairy kicking him.

  He could tell they must be in space. A quick check with the ship computer confirmed it and he went in search of Cleo.

  Banok found her in the exercise room. Heat lamps had the whole place sweltering. Cleo was in shorts and a tank top, punching it out with a combat droid.

  "Guess we're wasting no time," Banok said.

  "We needed to get off-world. Klink might have had friends. We'll head back to Rockholm and figure out our next steps," Cleo said, ducking under a droid punch and delivering a series of blows to its midsection.

  "You obviously want to take the job. Since we don't need the money," Banok said.

  "I never need the money. You know it's always about something else," Cleo said.

  "We don't need the adventure either. Not if it takes us all the way into the Fade."

  Cleo gave him a long look, ducking instinctively under a punch before delivering an uppercut to the droid's head. "End training. Come on, Banok, talk to me. If there's anything I can usually depend on, it's you wanting a big payday. Is this druid stuff?"

  Banok rubbed at his eyes and took a seat on one of the benches. "The Fade is bad, magic bad. I know you probably think of my abilities as something of a novelty."

  Cleo grinned at that and sat beside him, pulling up one knee to tuck under her chin. "Never assume I just think of anything as a novelty. If I didn't respect what you brought to the table, you wouldn't be here."

  "But most of the druids are jokes these days. They worship nature, but almost never leave Ellesadril. They never see the worlds outside their own," Banok said.

  "While you're a murderous badass who is almost nothing like them. I said I respect what you bring to the table, so talk to me," Cleo said.

  "They might be a joke, but magic isn't. There is real power there, for all that we see very little of it these days."

  "Because most of it is locked up in the Fade. Taken into the darkness along with the Void Queen after she fell. I know all of this," Cleo said.

  "Then why are you even thinking of doing this job?" Banok said.

  Cleo tilted her head. Her green eyes were especially brilliant as she stared him down. "Because it doesn't make sense. People wander into the Fade, most don't make it. A few have returned with power and wealth."

  "You can already have both."

  Cleo waved that off. "You know I don't care."

  Banok knew that much was true, Cleo didn't. It was one of the most admirable and infuriating things about her. She had a disdain of wealth that only the truly wealthy could ever manage.

  "Then what is it? You're asking me to explain myself, but you already know what I'm going to say and why. You already know I'm right. Why are you not listening?" Banok asked.

  Cleo chuckled and gave him a wry smile. Cleo really was beautiful when she smiled, along with her dark hair and pale skin marked with its jaguar-like spots.

  Banok made it a point to not dwell on that beauty. Apart from frequent teasing, things had never gone any further with Cleo. There was magnetism there, a bit too much to be safe. It was the right decision, and one he regretted every time she smiled.

  "It's like in the warehouse. I can't help opening the box, and when I see the forgery I know the mystery is bigger. Fools wander into the Fade all the time looking for glory, but that isn't what this is. We have coordinates—a definite time and place for something to be found. Don't you want to know why?" Cleo asked.

  There it was. Curiosity, mystery. If there was anything Cleo was absolutely powerless to ignore, it was a good mystery.

  Banok had to admit that this was a good one. The Fade was unknown—that was part of its very nature. Really, it shouldn't be possible for Cleo to have been provided a precise time and location.

  "What else did the briefing say?" Banok asked.

  "Traps, both technological and magical. And defenders—again both technological and magical. What we seek to be found is on the fourth level, and in a sarcophagus. Aside from that, a lot of speculation and a sad lack of detail," Cleo said.

  "No wonder Aubrey turned it down."

  "Klink was stupid to think it suited her more than us. Without a plan she's useless, and she doesn't have magic on her team," Cleo said.

  "No, she's good even without a plan," Banok said.

  Cleo uncurled and bounced back to her feet. "So whoever put all this together had some details, but not all. Don't you want to know how? What they want?"

  "We could find out all of that without taking a trip into the Fade. Now that we know who was doing the hiring, we could go after them directly," Banok said.

  Cleo began to pace. "We might, but I think getting what they want first is the better lead. Once we have some leverage, we can really pry out some secrets."

  "If they talk to us at all after what we did to Klink."

  Cleo shrugged that off. "If we didn’t, they would have. With half a million credits on the line you know the middleman wasn't staying alive, not on something like this. As the contractors, we might."

  It was probably true. Middleman was at times the perfect position to be in, and at others you were always the loose end that needed tying up. The bigger and more secret the job, the more the latter became true. Klink never should have signed up for that deal. Greed had clouded his judgment.

  "So we're doing the job," Banok said.

  Cleo paused for a moment. "Maybe. I did want to talk to you. You are our magical big guns. Nyx is magic, but she turned her back on that whole spirit side of things. If you say this can't be done, I'm going to listen."

  Great, if Banok had ever wanted to make the choices, he'd be in charge. It wasn't just for Cleo's brains and the fancy ship he stuck around. It was nice to let someone else make the hard decisions.

  "We do it, we need to be prepared," Banok said.

  Cleo beamed. "That's why we are on our way to Rockholm."

  Rockholm was home, so much as any place could be called that. Originally the Dwarves devoted themselves to mining the large asteroid, but when the resources ran out the isolated location, well away from law enforcement and with excellent booze, made it a home to smugglers, criminals, and all the worst sorts. What Dwarves remained were mercenaries, and damned good ones.

  "The stuff I need is going to be expensive," Banok warned.

  "When has that ever been an issue? The important thing is to be quick about getting it. Our target arrives in one week, and we'll be travelling three days to get to the Fade," Cleo said.

  It wasn't the best news. Magical implements and provisions were both rare and expensive. With Cleo footing the bill the lat
ter wasn't an issue, but the lack of supply meant he might not have time to get what he wanted.

  "We'll want mercenaries too, if any are foolish enough to go," Banok said.

  "You know Dwarves. Their sins of excess are ones of greed, not cowardice. I have the coin, and they'll go wherever we point them," Cleo said.

  It was true.

  "Just because I am saying it's possible doesn't mean it is a good idea. The smartest thing for us to do would be to stay far, far away from whatever this is," Banok said.

  "Oh, but our sins aren't cowardice either. I want to find out what's worth all this bother," Cleo said.

  "Don't go throwing all your fortune at this either. Scatter too much money around, you'll bring out the predators."

  "They want to try to take a bite out of us, we'll take a bigger one out of them. Same as always. I know we should be subtle, but we don't have the luxury of time."

  Banok thought it was good that he'd had his sleep. It sounded like he was going to be spending a lot of time awake making sure that Cleo and the ship were safe. Everybody knew she had money, but very few were aware just how much. Banok himself wasn't sure, but if her purse had a bottom he hadn't found it yet.

  It was another reason he stuck around.

  5

  Rockholm was dug out of the massive asteroid. Dwarves had always enjoyed digging tunnels and space travel hadn't changed that. Ornate stonework covered every wall, centuries of work detailing every surface.

  Banok was alone. He thought it best to get his business out of the way quickly so he could later devote himself to guarding the ship. Besides, although difficult to source, his supplies shouldn't take that long to locate.

  A faded sign proclaiming "Fortunes told" in peeling, yellow letters barely caught the eye in a dark, trash-strewn alley. Banok slipped inside. Dim lighting, colored beads, and the scent of old gin defined the space.